Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 11, 2006 17:59:23 GMT -5
Death penalty debate expected amid more property tax reform talks
The cost of the state's seldom-used death penalty will dominate debate at the Legislature this week as relatives of murder victims get their say.
A death penalty study commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday to take testimony from witnesses, including relatives of murder victims. Officials want to hear whether there is a major cost difference between the death penalty and life in prison without parole.
The special commission formed last year has until mid-November to give recommendations on whether New Jersey's capital punishment law needs to be either revised or abolished. The state has 10 men on death row, but the law that created the commission imposed a moratorium on executions until 60 days after the panel completes its work.
No execution was imminent. New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 but hasn't used it since 1963.
Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were killed in their Pleasantville home in 2001 by death row inmate Brian Wakefield, has been wary of the commission's work.
"I am very concerned that this is a bid to abolish the death penalty," she said.
Death penalty foes are hopeful that will happen.
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty recently released a report that detailed how 25 New Jerseyans were convicted of crimes they didn't commit.
"Our state is not immune from the types of errors that result in an innocent person being sentenced to die," said Celeste Fitzgerald, the group's executive director.
(source: Associated Press)
The cost of the state's seldom-used death penalty will dominate debate at the Legislature this week as relatives of murder victims get their say.
A death penalty study commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday to take testimony from witnesses, including relatives of murder victims. Officials want to hear whether there is a major cost difference between the death penalty and life in prison without parole.
The special commission formed last year has until mid-November to give recommendations on whether New Jersey's capital punishment law needs to be either revised or abolished. The state has 10 men on death row, but the law that created the commission imposed a moratorium on executions until 60 days after the panel completes its work.
No execution was imminent. New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 but hasn't used it since 1963.
Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were killed in their Pleasantville home in 2001 by death row inmate Brian Wakefield, has been wary of the commission's work.
"I am very concerned that this is a bid to abolish the death penalty," she said.
Death penalty foes are hopeful that will happen.
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty recently released a report that detailed how 25 New Jerseyans were convicted of crimes they didn't commit.
"Our state is not immune from the types of errors that result in an innocent person being sentenced to die," said Celeste Fitzgerald, the group's executive director.
(source: Associated Press)